Better Man: Day 7

On Day 7 of your week toward better living, Dr. Oz leaves you with his marinade recipe and tips on buying the right sneakers.

By
Mehmet Oz, M.D. & Michael Roizen, M.D.

Apr 29, 2008

Advertisement - Continue Reading Below

Sneakers • Barbecuing • Lawn Care • Your Brain

▢ Buy a good pair of walking or running shoes. A shoe shouldn't merely fit; it has to have the right arch support and the right amount of cushioning. It is worth splurging. Some advice:

How to Buy Running Shoes

By Jeff Rich, director, U.S. Orthotic Center, New York City

1. Check to see if the store carries a range of replacement insoles. If it doesn't, it's not a store that takes athletes seriously. Go elsewhere.

2.Get your foot measured. You may think you know your size, but as you get older, your arch falls and the foot spreads out. You could go up a size and a half between your twenties and your forties.

3. Check the length. You want at least a quarter inch between the tips of your toes and the front of the shoe.

4. Check the width by squeezing around the ball of the foot with your hand. It should feel like squeezing your bicep when you make a muscle: firm, but with a bit of give. (If it's too tight, try another model, not a bigger size -- a shoe that's too long is no better than one that's too narrow.)

5. Test the construction. The toe box should flex easily but not be floppy, and there should be a groove molded into the sole to encourage it to bend at the proper spot. Give the shoe a twist; the toe area should flex, but the rest should be fairly rigid. Finally, squeeze the heel box. The sturdier the better.

6. If you run on it a few times and something's still not quite right, try exchanging the stock insole with a high-quality replacement. A lot of times, this will make all the difference.

▢ It's almost grilling season, so make a rule that will go into effect this summer: Marinate the meat. If you char it without marinating it, you increase polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, some of which are known carcinogens.

▢ Cancel your spring pesticide application for the lawn. Think about it: You walk on the lawn, you walk in the house...pesticides in the house. Try a safe, natural lawn application. (See beyondpesticides.org; Pyola insect spray, "the insecticide from plants for plants," $17 for 12 gallons, and Soap-Shield fungicidal, $14 for 16 gallons, both at gardensalive.com; TruGreen lawn service, usually $30 for the first application, trugreen.com.)

▢ Do something you've never done before. Or that you haven't done in years. Buy a volleyball net. Ask your partner to try a different position. Go to a play or a jai alai match -- just one thing you've never done before. Whatever it is, it'll be one of the most important things you do this week. Trying something new teaches you to expect the unexpected -- new neuronal connections are stimulated in the brain, which can actually make you smarter and fend off memory loss. Reading a new book is great, but anything requiring even slight physical activity is better because you need even more mental computing power to tell your limbs what to do in a coordinated way.

Then, if it's a new hobby or skill, stick with it for two weeks. You've got a chemical in the brain called brain-derived growth factor -- it's essentially Miracle-Gro. It stimulates new neurons, new synapses, and new pathways for decision-making. When you learn something new -- whether it's the muscle memory (motions that have become instinctual because the brain has developed neuronal paths and reflexes) of making a jump shot, or a new language, or a new behavior -- it takes two weeks for that to become ingrained in you.

This idea -- trying something new, breaking from routine -- is not the same as taking a vacation, which some people recommend. The problem with that is, you spend the whole week leading up to it staring at the computer because you can't wait to leave, and you're not enjoying or focusing on day-to-day life. Life is not a holding pattern while you wait for the good stuff to happen. Life is about the here and now. Do one thing you've never done before, and maybe it will become a part of life rather than a way to get away from it.

A Part of Hearst Digital Media
Esquire participates in various affiliate marketing programs, which means we may get paid commissions on editorially chosen products purchased through our links to retailer sites.